I've been having a problem concerning food that I thought maybe someone
here could help me out with.  Here's the problem:
 
A few months ago, we adopted (actually, rescued is more like it) our
third ferret, a very sweet albino female, from a friend of my sister's
sister-in-law.  He didn't take very good care of her at all.  For instance,
in the two years or so he had her, he'd never had her get distemper/rabies
shots, never given her a bath, never clipped her claws, very rarely let
her out of her cage (and the cage was just one of those small travel cages),
and he'd never even heard of ferretone/linatone.  Her coat was in awful
condition (dry, coarse and sparse) and she practically limped from lack of
exercise, but since we've had her she's made great improvements in these
areas.  We also got her up to date on her shots.
 
One problem still exists, though.  He was feeding her whatever store
brand he could find cheap.  Therefore, she refuses to even touch the
Science Diet and Iams kitten foods we have for our other two ferrets,
even if it means she goes hungry.  I finally broke down and bought a
few store brands to try and get her to eat something.  She's currently
eating Purina One most of the time, with Friskies flavors and Friskies
kitten food thrown in on occasion when she gets bored with the Purina One.
 
My vet says that store brands aren't good for them at all, because of
being mostly vegetable protein instead of animal protein.  (Also, they
have excesses of vitamins and minerals, if I understood correctly.)
To compound the problem, one of our other two ferrets has started to
eat a lot of the Purina and Friskies, too, and it seems to be having an
effect on her coat.  (It's just not as healthy as it used to look, and
the underside of her tail is getting sparse.)  The vet recommended we try
Nature's Recipe as an alternative, but unfortunately neither one wants
anything to do with it.
 
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for alternatives
to Science Diet/Iams/Nature's Recipe.  I know I probably won't find anything
that's nearly as good nutritionally, but I thought I could try to find
something relatively decent, or at least not harmful to them.  Any advice?
Thanks in advance!
 
--
Lynn-Anne Friese
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[Posted in FML issue 0411]